Dennis Schikora: Between US

40 Questions 

1 OF 40

WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW? Berlin.

2 OF 40

WHAT ARE YOU WEARING? Black wool trousers, a blank white tee, guidi leather belt and bag, A1923 boots, werkstatt:münchen silver jewelry that I've been wearing for the past decade. 

3 OF 40

WHY THIS? I like a uniform that holds up. 

4 OF 40

WHAT'S ESSENTIAL TODAY? Discipline. 

5 OF 40

WHAT ISN'T? self-doubt.

6 OF 40

WHAT DEFINES YOUR ROUTINE? Repetition without certainty.

7 OF 40

WHAT BREAKS IT? Excess. 

8 OF 40

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON?  Myself.

9 OF 40

WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT? If it's too late for another coffee.

10 OF 40

WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND WHEN YOU WAKE UP? Coffee usually.

11 OF 40

WHAT DO YOU NOTICE FIRST IN A SPACE? Loud noises.

12 OF 40

WHAT DO YOU IGNORE? I don’t. 

13 OF 40 

WHAT DRAWS YOUR ATTENTION? Natural irregularities and small inconsistencies.

14 OF 40 

WHAT HOLDS IT? Austerity.

15 OF 40

WHAT DO YOU RETURN TO? Photographs, scents, books.

16 OF 40

WHAT DO YOU LEAVE BEHIND? Sentimentality. 

17 OF 40

WHAT FEELS FAMILIAR? Tension.

18 OF 40

WHAT FEELS NEW? Enjoying the subway. 

19 OF 40

WHAT FEELS NECESSARY? Solitude, sometimes. 

20 OF 40

WHAT FEELS EXCESSIVE? Trying to explain everything. 

21 OF 40

WHAT INFORMS YOUR DECISIONS? Intuition and whatever I'm dealing with internally.

22 OF 40

WHAT CHALLENGES THEM? Distraction.

23 OF 40

WHAT DO YOU TRUST? What do you trust? The Idea that arrives fully informed, no matter how uncomfortable it may be. 

24 OF 40

WHAT DON’T YOU TRUST? Anything too agreeable.

25 OF 40

WHAT’S INSTINCTIVE? Pushing things too far. 

26 OF 40

WHAT’S DELIBERATE? Restraint. 

27 OF 40

WHAT’S IMMEDIATE? Reaction to the surface.

28 OF 40

WHAT TAKES TIME? Understanding why something works.

29 OF 40 

WHAT’S PHYSICAL IN WHAT YOU DO? The material and most definitely the mess on the floor.

30 OF 40

WHAT’S MENTAL? Everything else really.

31 OF 40 

WHAT’S CHANGING? Momentum.

32 OF 40 

WHAT’S CONSTANT? Appetite.

33 OF 40

WHAT DO YOU CARRY WITH YOU? anxiety. 

34 OF 40

WHAT DO YOU LEAVE AT HOME? Anything that just gets in the way.

35 OF 40

WHAT INFLUENCES YOU WITHOUT YOU REALISING? the body. 

36 OF 40 

WHAT ARE YOU RESISTANT TO? Pretending things are fine when they are noT. 

37 OF 40

WHAT ARE YOU OPEN TO? Things going wrong.

38 OF 40

WHAT DEFINES PROGRESS FOR YOU? enduring it.

39 OF 40

WHAT DEFINES COMPLETION? In a painting? When i stop interfering. 

40 OF 40

WHAT COMES NEXT? refinement.

Reads

Albert Camus (in general)  

The Trouble with Being Born Emil Cioran 

Letter to His Father Franz Kafka   

Hymns to the Night Novalis 

selected poems Friedrich Hölderlin 

There’s a shared emotional ground across these that I find myself returning to.

photographic:

Rinko Kawauchi (in general)  

Lina Scheynius (I own all of her books)  

These sit quite close to how I think about image. I keep returning to them and am interested in how they hold over time and how that relationship shifts.

I also have a fairly large collection of art books and catalogues, alongside older and sometimes harder to find publications. I tend to come back to these repeatedly, similar to the way you revisit old photographs.